Topic: Chicken Tikka Everything

[Tomdip]

I really like Chicken Tikka on its own or in a CTM, and Blade's recipe is cracking. 

But whenever I add tikka to a non creamy curry I really don't see any benefit to the curry.  I cant pick up any Tikka flavours and begrudge both the extra effort in making the tikka, and not getting the benefit of enjoying it in its unadulterated state.

I have noticed on BIR menus and on lots of recipes on here that I may be in the minority as adding Chicken Tikka to a curry seems to sex it up for a lot of people.

Do other peeps really notice the difference in adding Chicken Tikka to their madras, dansaks or vindaloos? 

Me I am happy with cheapo frozen chicken breasts, boiled and cubed

[Malc.]

Like yourself and Phil, I prefer to eat tikka unadulterated served simply on a sizzler. Adding Tikka to any dish (including masala) seems odd to me, especially when being added to spicy dishes.

I have come to wonder about why restaurants are pushing this these days. Obviously there is a price hike so they are making more money but is it easier for them. Certainly if they are cooking it fresh straight from the marinade into the tandoor, it would certainly be more appealing to most consumers.

[solarsplace]

Hi

Pure unadulterated good quality chicken tikka served on its own as you quite rightly say is the bees knees.

There are some curries places near me that advertise chicken tikka madras and vindaloo, and I have to say I agree with you guys. Some dishes just should not be meddled with. They are just perfect with plain chicken.

However, there are several dishes that 'just work' and work well, such as your garlic chilli, roshney, jalfrezi with chicken tikka in place of plain chicken.

I guess some places just try to appeal to the non bir educated average punter and try to appear to do something a little special by offering odd combinations and tikka with everything.

Most weekends I will make a 1killo batch of Kushi or Blade tikka done on the BBQ and make dishes like the garlic chilli, or kushi rogan josh and the others mentioned above - personally for me I love the tikka in those types of dishes and its well worth the effort.

However, I still think you should'nt mess with the madras and vindaloo etc. Those should not be molested with tikka chicken - its just not right.

Cheers

[976bar]

However, I still think you should'nt mess with the madras and vindaloo etc. Those should not be molested with tikka chicken - its just not right.

Cheers

Hi Solarsplace,

I understand you're thinking but have to ask have you ever tried Chicken Tikka Madras? I love both the plain and the Tikka versions and find they just give a bit of variety when making Indian food all the time

And a lot more restaurants rightly or wrongly are making these dishes nowadays, I guess given the competition, they need to do something else, but it's still a nice alternative......

[Ramirez]

I'm not fussed really and I don't really mind. I don't think adding Chicken Tikka to, say a Madras, improves the dish, but it does change it and it can be nice for a change (although I do think the change is subtle).

In terms of home cooking though, I never add Chicken Tikka to my mains. In fact, I am increasingly using raw instead of pre-cooked.

[chewytikka]

Hi All
IMHO Most BIR's are customer driven, that includes the choice on the menus, Its simple evolution over the last 30 years.

Chicken Curry used to come on the bone at one time, a waiter would ask On or Off the bone Sir,
then probably too many drunken customers were choking on bones, so that choice ended.

Then it became Dark meat or Breast, Sir. The answer being Chicken Breast please!
Even with an extra charge put on it, breast became normal, and the dark meat choice, by and large was dropped.

When the Tandoor was introduced, customers liked Tikka so much, they started asking for it in their curry, instead
of breast meat... Thus a whole new addition started appearing on menus.

And it didn't stop there, customers started asking for (Bloody Mixed Curries which really freaks me..)
Chicken,Lamb,Beef,Prawn Madras please, the Chef's chuckle and the owners charge a bit extra.

As for Chicken Tikka, lots of dishes have evolved purely because of "Chicken Tikka" and wouldn't
exist without it as a main ingredient.

Just like in my local, the Chef cooks a wonderful "Railway Lamb Curry" and I bet on occasion some Muppet will
ask for it made with Chicken Tikka or King Prawn or Spam or something.
And of course the restaurant will oblige, as long as they pay the 12.95 price tag.

So that's my little rant, its the customers fault. :-X
cheers Chewy

[Peripatetic Phil]

So that's my little rant, it's the customers fault. :-X

Sadly, I agree.  And it all started with Chicken Tikka Masala.  How I long for the good old days, when a curry was a curry and a tandoori was a tandoori and ne'er the twain did meet ... 

In fact, they were so well segregated that at the Agra in Whitfield Street, it was extraordinarily difficult (indeed, often impossible) to get a chapatti with one's tandoori chicken instead of a naan.  Chapatti with curry : no problem; chapatti with tandoori -- no, sorry Sir, only naan ...

** Phil.

[bamble1976]

Hi

I think the tikka can add something to the dish when you initially get the sauce flavour then a little bit of the tikka comes through!!  Again I think this shows how even on the forum the differing opinions on something as simple as this are vast.

Barry

p.s. I am that freak who loves a mixed meat curry!!  I just love meats!

[Stephen Lindsay]

Having the usual curry fare with Tikka instead of plain chicken has also been on our menus for a while here in Scotland. Changes and developments are not necessarily a good thing though are they? Take the use of Pataks products in Tikka and Tandoori - it seems that this is widespread but in my opinion it represents the kind of dumbing down of menus that this thread talks about.

[solarsplace]

However, I still think you should'nt mess with the madras and vindaloo etc. Those should not be molested with tikka chicken - its just not right.

Cheers

Hi Solarsplace,

I understand you're thinking but have to ask have you ever tried Chicken Tikka Madras? I love both the plain and the Tikka versions and find they just give a bit of variety when making Indian food all the time

And a lot more restaurants rightly or wrongly are making these dishes nowadays, I guess given the competition, they need to do something else, but it's still a nice alternative......

Hi 976bar

Perhaps I was being a little harsh. I had a chicken tikka madras - and to be fair, it was very nice. I just thought that the restaurant was getting a bit silly as they were hybridding (is that a real word?) most of their dishes. Every dish seemed to be made of a combination of 2 or more other dishes.

Well, I probably exaggerate when I say every dish, but a fair few. But as Chewy points out, perhaps many of the clients are asking for these mixes and they are driven by the customer. Nothing wrong with it at all to be fair, as long as it is still possible to get the standard version of a dish if that is what you want.

Cheers